1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control apparatus enabling a printer to execute a print job for printing on a sheet a print subject image and a stamp mark in a superimposed manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a printer prints an image prepared by a terminal equipment or an image scanned by a scanner (such images are hereafter referred to as print subject images), a stamp mark can be printed on at least a part of the print subject image based on a setting for the stamp mark by a user.
Such a stamp mark is combined with the print subject image as follows. Namely, before an executive instruction for a print job is entered, a user sets image processing conditions, such as a scaling factor and/or a rotation angle, for the stamp mark. After the executive instruction for the print job is entered, image processes such as a scale process and/or a rotation process, is carried out with respect to the stamp mark in accordance with the image processing conditions. This allows the stamp mark to be combined with the print subject image. Thereafter, a printing process is performed.
According to the printing in which the stamp mark is combined, the image processes are carried out with respect to the stamp mark after the executive instruction for the print job is entered. This causes a problem that the initiation of printing is delayed because the time required from the entering of the executive instruction to the initiation of printing becomes longer by the time required for carrying out the image processes with respect to the stamp mark.
In order to address the problem, Patent Document 1 discloses an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of stamp marks, each having a different scaling factor and a different rotation angle, are prepared from a single original stamp mark by performing plural image processes with respect to the single original stamp mark under various image processing conditions and the plurality of stamp marks thus prepared are stored (registered) in a storage device such as a hard disk.
According to the image forming apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, a stamp mark is read out from the storage device when the storage device stores the stamp mark that has been processed under the same image processing condition(s) as the processing condition(s) entered by a user. Subsequently, the stamp mark thus read out is combined with the print subject image. Thereafter, printing is executed. Therefore, the image processing apparatus can prepare a stamp mark that has already been subjected to the image processes at the time when the print instruction is entered. This reduces the time required from the entering of the executive instruction to the initiation of print process. As a result, it is possible to prevent delay in the initiation of printing.
(Patent Document 1)
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-212120 (Tokukai 2005-212120 (Date of publication: Aug. 11, 2005))
The image processing condition(s) entered by a user differs from print job to print job. Therefore, in order to avoid a disadvantage that “the storage device does not store a stamp mark that has been processed under the same image processing condition(s) as the image processing condition(s) entered by a user,” according to the image forming apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is necessary that the storage device has in advance stored as many the stamp marks as possible on the assumption that a user will enter various image processing conditions. This causes an excessive consumption of storage capacity of the storage device.
The excessive consumption of storage capacity of the storage device causes adverse effects that an access time for reading a stamp mark out becomes long and that the performance of a computer which processes the stamp mark becomes significantly deteriorated. Therefore, it is demanded, in a print control apparatus which controls print process in which the stamp mark is combined, to suppress the delay in the initiation of print process without the excessive consumption of storage capacity of the storage device.